Singlespeed & Fixed Gear"I still feel that variable gears are only for people over forty-five.
Isn't it better to triumph by the strength of your muscles than by the artifice of a derailer? We are getting soft...As for me, give me a fixed gear!"-- Henri Desgrange (31 January 1865 - 16 August 1940)

I hear high flange hubs give better power transfer. I'm sure this doesn't apply to the front wheel because there is no power being transferred to it. Now I feel like it is unnecessary to have a high flange hub on the front wheel other than for looks, and I know many of you hipsters really dig the looks over the performance of a bike. A low flange hub for the front wheel would weigh less, have less rotational mass (although trivial) and would probably have better shock absorption.

High flange hubs increase lateral stiffness by shortening the spoke and increasing the angle of the spoke as it travels from the flange to the median plane of the wheel at the rim. Traditionally, high flanges also allowed a track racer to replace a broken drive side spoke without removing the cog.

Generally speaking, a modern symetrically dished wheel, well endowed with spokes, and built with modern components, will be sufficiently stiff and durable without high flanges.

There is no real reason to use a high flange hub in the front or the rear except for looks.

Personally, I prefer using light weight low flange road hubs on the front with either a bolt-on skewer or quick release skewer. I use high flange rear track hubs but only because they are more commonly available than low flange track hubs.

I know many of you hipsters really dig the looks over the performance of a bike.

Oh boy. You're going to do great here.

On a slightly related tangent, there's a lot of talk about better power transfer, more efficient pedal stroke blah blah blah on BF. A lot of times people forget that you can have a blinged-out car, but if the motor is ****ty and in a state of disrepair it won't run well regardless. Now, translate that to bikes - if you're a weak rider who doesn't train, it doesn't matter what you buy. Ride your bike more.

So now that this thread has gone into hipster talk rather than answering the question any further I'm going to close this before it gets ugly.

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Originally Posted by Buddha

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Originally Posted by making

Please dont outsmart the censor. That is a very expensive censor and every time one of you guys outsmart it it makes someone at the home office feel bad. We dont wanna do that. So dont cleverly disguise bad words.